The Red Wolf (1st book Red Series) (Completed)

Chapter 18 (Edited)

A/N: Here you are my beautiful munchkins. :) Hope you enjoy.

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I bit my lip and chewed on it, trying to think of what I wanted to say. I knew that there would be many things that they wouldn't understand, but I couldn't tell them. Not yet at least. I needed to know if I could trust them.

"Rylan," a voice said, causing me to look back there again. Addy smiled at me. "You don't have to tell us if you aren't ready."I shook my head no. "I'm not, but if I back down now, then it will be a constant thing." I leaned back in my seat and fiddled with my sleeves. "The first time that I remember the Witherbrook coming to the GreenRock Pack was when I turned twelve. Alpha Cameron had thought it would be a good idea for me to actually celebrate my birthday with people that might actually care about me."

"Wait, your pack doesn't care?" Luke asked.

I smiled grimly. "If I die today, I can say that only four people would miss me." I shook my head and chuckled darkly. "My mate wouldn't be one of them." That was a fact that I knew to be true.

I took a deep breath. "Alpha Cameron had told me that he had asked a neighboring pack to come and celebrate my birthday as well as the goodness of the pack. I was ecstatic." I chuckled coldly. "How daft was I. When you all were about to arrive, Cooper and his goons had cornered me and started to hit me. They said that I wasn't worthy of being called a member of the pack of what I had done." I blinked back the tears that so badly wanted to fall out of my eyes as I remembered them spitting on me. "After they had beaten me black and blue, Cooper had told me that I should know my place. He threw my beaten and battered body into the attic and there I stayed."

"Didn't anyone try to look for you?"

I nodded. "My brother did, but Cooper lied to him about not seeing me. He had tried searching for me, however, you all had arrived." I shrugged my shoulder. "My brother tried to escape, but Alpha Cameron had pulled him over and started a conversation with him as well as Alpha Carter."

"What were you doing?"

"Healing and crying," I replied. "They had beaten me black and blue, and I couldn't really move." I shuddered remembering how Cooper had actually broken a rib. Thankfully it didn't puncture a lung. "I had to set my bones back myself, and that wasn't fun."

"When did you finally escape?"

"Luna Clair had to get something from the attic, and she found me there. Thankfully, I was more than enough healed and just had a couple of bruised ribs and a black eye. She had asked me what I was doing up there, and I told her that I was trying to get what she had needed. However, the door was locked and I couldn't get back out."

"Did she ask about the bruising?"

"She did, but I just told her that it was under whatchamacallits and thingamajigs, so I had to go scavenging for it. She wanted a roll of sparkly duct tape that I had given her on one of her birthdays."

"But why didn't you go down afterwards?"

"My place was not with the pack. She asked me to go, but I just told her that I was feeling tired and went to my small room."

"The other times?" Perry asked. "Why didn't you go then?"

"I didn't want to get beaten so I just told Alpha Cameron that I didn't want to go. He figured that I would get beaten and was about to hurt his pack, but I couldn't let him hurt them. I made up a crazy schematic saying that I wasn't into parties or large social gatherings so it didn't matter anyways."

"And Alpha Cameron believed you?"

I shrugged. "He didn't, but he understood that I was protecting the pack. If someone had gotten hurt because of me, then I would probably never forgive myself. It's why no one has gotten punished for beating me up."